[3GScottishUser]

Orange has announced that it will be upgrading its 3G network in the UK to HSDPA this year, dubbed Orange 3G+. Orange's 3G network currently covers 90 percent of the UK, but the HSDPA enabled 3G+ service will be concentrating only on the commercial areas including London and major airports.

According to the mobile operator, the top 5 cities will be getting HSDPA at a certain time during this year. Along with the upgrade of the network, Orange will be providing a wide choice of HSDPA-enabled handsets and a range of data cards that can be fitted to laptops and other devices.

The 3G mobile telephony protocol allows much higher data speeds, current HSDPA deployments supporting 1.8Mbps, 3.6Mbps and 7.2Mbps in downlink. HSDPA achieves the increase in data transfer speeds by defining a new W-CDMA or TD-CDMA channel and is an evolutionary improvement for the UMTS standard.

Neil Laider, VP of Orange Business Services, said: "Mobile broadband is designed to increase the productivity of our customers, wherever they happen to be working. 3G+ provides faster response times and enhances applications where bigger file downloads or faster data streaming is required.”

"For example, a 3MB PowerPoint presentation will typically take just 34 seconds to download using Orange 3G+ compared with 20 minutes via GPRS. Customers with 3G+ enabled mobile office cards will notice these benefits as 3G+ is rolled out across the network. Orange is future proofing by ensuring all mobile office cards are 3G+ ready."

Orange has been expected to make this announcement for quite some time, as most mobile operators have already upgraded their networks.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Orange-Upgrading-UK-Network-to-HSDPA-47226.shtml

[miffed]

Orange pushing back the boundaries as ever !

... Should be good too - I remember being really impressed with it on T-mobile (all a bit vague - it was 6 months ago after all ;) )

Wait till they get colour screens on Orange - it'll blow your mind ! (or have they got them already yet ? )

;) :D

[Ben]

*yawn* could Orange be any further behind on this? I mean, sure, they're boasting some pretty impressive standard 3G coverage now, but Vodafone will have their whole network HSDPA'd by this Summer, and T-Mobile's network is already pure HSDPA afaik - even their reduced coverage is going to top 'the top 5 cities'.

Lmao @ miffed :p

[Hands0n]

According to the mobile operator, the top 5 cities will be getting HSDPA at a certain time during this year. Along with the upgrade of the network, Orange will be providing a wide choice of HSDPA-enabled handsets and a range of data cards that can be fitted to laptops and other devices.

............ and everyone else can go to Hell! Cheers for that Orange. Way to go :(

So this "...wide choice of HSDPA-enabled handsets..." will only be suitable for those in the ".....top 5 cities...." and completely pointless for all the rest of Orange's customers.

As others have already said - this leaves Orange entirely out in the cold in comparison to its rivals who have nationwide HSDPA coverage. Perhaps France Telecom has over-reached itself in its recent acquisitions and mergers. Perhaps if anyone is serious about Mobile Data (that is, data while mobile, i.e. on the move) they will have to seriously consider Orange a last-choice provider. Especially so if that individual's scope of operations takes it outside of Orange's choice of "...top 5 cities..."

Nice one Orange. That really gives one a nice warm fuzzy feeling ...... NOT!